Now if you would, if you have
your Bibles open at 1 John 5, I want to talk to you a little
bit very simply today. You folks know that I probably
preach more doctrinal sermons maybe than anybody else in the
state of Montana, and you'd have to probably go several states
around to find anybody that preaches more doctrinal messages than
I do. But last week my message I felt
was very practical message and this week will be no different.
I have felt sometime in my meditation while I was away for a few weeks. I meditated some and I felt that
there needed to be some time spent because of the number of
young people and the number of children that we have in our
presence, more time spent on some of the milk of the Word
of God and maybe not as much time right now at this time on
the meat of the Word. But I'm sure this morning that
you'll get something for your soul if you'll listen carefully
to what we have to say. Well, beloved, have you realized
yet the brevity of life? You know, we were talking just
a moment ago, and this question is one that I believe ought to
be asked. of everybody that we meet, if
we have an opportunity, if God opens the door, if the opportunity
is presented by the Lord to our hearts, we should ask them, if
you were to die today, do you know that you're saved? Do you know that you're a child
of God? Do you know that you'd go off yonder to be with the
Lord for all eternity? Do you know that? Well, have
you yet realized the brevity of life? Yesterday was the 4th
of July and tomorrow will be Labor Day. How quick life passes,
just one day and it just seems like after a month, it just seems
like that one day. Maybe your daughter was born
and tomorrow she'll be getting married. Yesterday you were a
granddaughter yourself and today you are a grandmother. Yesterday you read the funny
papers and today you probably pick out and look at the obituary
column the first thing you do when you read the paper. Yesterday
in America, 35 years old, was the heart of youth. or was old. Yesterday, back a few years ago,
I remember hearing that when somebody was 35, they were getting
old. But today, let me say it this
way, it is the heart of youth. 35 is the heart of youth. Yesterday,
he or she wore diapers, and today they wear the same clothes that
you wear and you can't find them because she always or he always
has them on. Yesterday was the crib and tomorrow
is the casket. Yesterday you stood by his crib
or her crib and tomorrow he or she stands by your sickbed. Time
is passing on. Life is very brief. Yesterday
you held on to him and taught him how to walk as a little child,
and today he lets you hold on to him to walk. Life is pretty
short. There's not much to it. We are
just barely alive. We are just barely alive. If
you were to be taken out of this world today, do you know that
you're saved? Do you know that you're a child
of God? Do you know that you would go
to heaven? Now the basis of assurance is the written word of God alone.
The basis of assurance that we have eternal salvation, that
we have eternal life, that we know that we are a child of God,
that we know that we pass from death into life, the basis of
that assurance is the written word of God alone and nothing
else. When it boils down to it, that's
all of the assurance that we really have. Now feelings won't
last. Do you know for sure that you
have eternal life? John said here, if we receive
the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is
the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. God had
some things to say about His Son. He said, He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made Him a liar, Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us, eternal life. And this life is in his Son.
And he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. Now you say, well nobody knows
anything for sure. You say, well, you're talking
about somebody knowing for sure that they have eternal life,
knowing for sure that if they die, they're going to heaven.
Well, in verse 13, these things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know, that
you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God. Somebody said, well, nobody knows
anything for sure. There was a man one time that
I heard make that statement. Somebody was talking about the
assurance of salvation. He said they knew that they were
saved and they were sure of it. And this fellow said, well nobody
knows anything for sure. And this fellow to whom he was
speaking spoke up to him and said, are you sure? Are you sure? If you say that nobody knows
anything for sure, are you sure that nobody knows anything for
sure? Well, let me tell you this, my
friend, that I'm sure if the Word of God says it. If God said
it, John here, he wrote very simply, very practically, and
he said, I've written these things to you that believe on the name
of the Son of God. I'm writing these things to you
that believe. on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's very practical, he says, I'm writing these things
to you, tells us who he's writing to, and then the end to which
he's writing, that you may know, that you have eternal life, and
may believe on the name of the Son of God. Now it's amazing
when you begin to listen to religious people talk and preachers and
when you begin to read some commentaries what they have to say about this
verse. And they read this verse like
this, that you may know that you shall have eternal life. Now they say that's the way it's
to be read. Oh, there's no such thing as
knowing now. There's no such thing as a man
having presently the knowledge that he is a child of God and
that he can know now positively that if he died today that he
would go to heaven. There's no way that a person
can know that. Well, I beg your pardon, and
I beg their pardon, but there's no shall in this verse. It says these things are written,
and certainly we read now, and we're able to read now, that
you may know that you have eternal life as a present possession.
You've got it right now. And so if the Word of God says
it, Then, beloved, we can be sure that we have it. Now, I
haven't always known that I was saved. I haven't always known
that. The Lord saved me when I was 16 years old. I'm convinced
of that. I'm convinced of it. But I did
not know positively at that time that I had eternal salvation. I believe God did a work in my
soul. Now, there's been many times
since that when I had many, many doubts. And there's been times
that I felt like I didn't have an ounce of grace in my soul. That there wasn't an ounce of
life in me that was of a spiritual nature. There are many, many
times that I felt like that there was just, you know, I was just
hollow on the inside. I couldn't believe anything.
There wasn't anything that seemed to move my heart. I was just
as cold as I could be, possibly be, and felt as dull and lifeless
as as possible, graceless. But beloved, listen, there was
a time when God saved me. I believe that with all my heart. And down through the years, I've
had many and varied experiences that I could stand here and tell
you about today. And at any one of those experiences,
God could have saved me again if he wanted to. Now, I believe
that God only saves people one time. I've had many experiences
down through the years, but only one time, I believe, is when
God regenerated my heart and made me alive in the Lord. Now, Spurgeon, he had difficulties,
too, believing that he was a child of God. And he preached for a
number of years to large congregations, and all of his sermons were printed
and set out in papers. They were sold for a penny. these
sermons were. And they were sent out, had a
large circulation, and Mr. Spurgeon was off on one of his
times when he was sick and he couldn't be in the pulpit. And
so he went to a little old country church many miles from where
he lived and he sat down on the back row and the preacher got
up to preach and preached his sermon out of the paper. He had
memorized it word for word and preached his sermon back to Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Spurgeon said
he got up and walked out of that building convinced that he was
a child of God by hearing one of his own sermons preached back
to him. And beloved, many, many times
it's whenever we begin to sit still long enough to listen to
what the Word of God says, even if it's our own preaching, that
we become convinced that we are indeed a child of God. Now, there was a man by the name
of G. Campbell Morgan. who said that the devil would
come to him and ask him, how do you know that you believe?
Well, salvation is by believing and salvation is by trusting
Christ. Salvation is by depending upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you know that you're believing?
And he said that he was never able to answer the devil and
to give the devil a satisfactory answer as to just how he knew
that he was believing on Christ. But he said every time the devil
came to him, he would just fall down on his knees and he would
say, I have not believed before, I start right now believing. And he said just a little while,
the devil would be gone. He'd look up and the devil would
be gone. You know the Bible says that we'll resist the devil and
he will flee from us. The Bible teaches us that it's
through the Word of God that the devil is driven away. And so we need to learn that
we can only believe what God said and stand on that and drive
the devil away with the Word. Now, let me start here this morning
at this point by saying a few things about the importance of
knowing that you are a child of God. The importance of knowing
that right here in this world. I believe it's of the utmost
importance. I believe that it is more important
for you to know that your sins are forgiven and to know that
if you die you go to heaven, to know that you have eternal
life in your heart than it is for you to be able to foretell
the future about kingdoms and people. It's more important.
It's more important for you to know that you're a child of God
than it is for you to be able to explain all the mysteries
of the Bible or for you to be able to explain what the Bible
is talking about when it deals with the subject of eschatology,
for you to be able to set it all out in order just when the
Lord's coming and all of that. The important thing is, do I
know? Am I sure that I have eternal
life? Well, let me say first of all,
that there is no fullness of joy apart from knowing that my
sins are forgiven. There is no fullness of joy apart
from knowing that I am saved, that I am a child of God. Now
if you will notice, here in John 5 and 13, He said, I have written
these things to you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life. Now turn back to
the first chapter of the book of 1 John, and look at verse
4 if you will. Look at verse 4, and he says
here, And these things write we unto you, that your joy may
be full. Now it seems like maybe there's
a contradiction here. John says in one place, I've
written these things to you, that you may know that you have
eternal life. And then here in this fourth
verse of chapter 1, he says, I've written these things to
you that your joy may be full. Now, beloved, there's no contradiction. The truth is that assurance and
joy are Siamese twins. They're Siamese twins. You cannot
have any joy in the Lord unless you know that you have eternal
salvation. If you want to have real joy,
then, my friend, believe what the Word of God says to those
who have believed on Christ. Now beloved, there is not a word
here for those that are unbelievers. No word for a man who's not a
believer. If you're not a believer, this
is not your mail. You've got no business opening
these letters and reading this if you're not a believer. If
you're a believer, then you're welcome and you must hear this. This is the green pastures which
the people of God feed and lay down or lie down to rest. And
this belongs to the Lord's people. And you must see that. And if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and believe the Word of
God, then my friend, there is a basis for real joy and peace
in your life. And then let me say also, number
two, that there's no real service for Christ rendered by anyone
who does not know that they have eternal life. Now there's no
man that's going to go around telling other people about the,
and giving a reason for the hope that he has in his soul, if he
don't have any hope. If he don't have any real lasting
hope, if he don't have any sure salvation in his heart, he's
not going to be able to talk to anybody else. He can't render
any service to God unless he knows himself where he stands. And if he knows where he stands,
then he can talk to somebody else. And he can tell them about
the Savior that died in his room and place. Let me illustrate
that if I can. During the construction of the
first half of the Golden Gate Bridge, Out in California, it
is said that 25 people fell to their death while they were constructing
the first part of that bridge. And before they started the second
half of that bridge, they agreed to construct what they called
the world's largest net. underneath the construction site
and to have that net there as a safety net. And so they did
that. And after the second half of
the bridge, or when the second half of the bridge was built,
There was 10 people that fell, but they were caught in the net.
And there was nobody that lost their life in the construction
of the second half of that bridge. And it is said that when they
got all of the statistics together after they finished the project,
that they found that the workers that had worked on that bridge,
that they had accomplished 25% more in the time they worked
on that bridge than what the men did working on the first
half of the bridge. And what that tells you is that
these men could work much better knowing that they were safe.
Knowing that if they fell, they had a net under them. And so
they accomplished so much more. And I'll tell you this, that
if you don't know where you stand with God, and if your soul is
not secure On the rock, Jesus Christ, you cannot render any
service to God. You're worthless until this is
settled. Until this is settled. Do I know
the Lord? Am I in Christ? Do I know Him
for sure? Now then, the second thing I'd
like to deal with this morning is why do some doubt? Why do
some doubt? First of all, we talked about
the importance of knowing for sure that you're a child of God. Well, why do some people doubt?
Now listen to this. John says, I've written these
things to you that believe. on the name of the Son of God.
I'm writing to save people. I'm writing to believers. And
He said that ye may know that you have eternal life, implying
that there are some people that believe, but yet they don't know. Now they may get to heaven, but
they're mighty nervous on the way. They just do not believe.
There's doubts. And like I told you years ago,
I used to have doubts of my own. and struggles of my own in regard
to this until I came to understand that the only basis of assurance
is what God said. What God said. And now I am of
Paul's persuasion when He said, I am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I
know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. And
so I am of Paul's persuasion now. I know whom I have believed. I believe on the Lord Jesus.
They're going to lose it that they will lose their eternal
life Now throughout the Word of God if we want to take the
time we could do it this morning We could show you that there
is no place in the Bible where it talks about spiritual life
being anything other than eternal everlasting Jesus Christ gives
eternal, everlasting life. He does not give temporary life. And one of the great crowns and
glory of the gospel is that everybody that experiences regeneration
receives an everlasting blessing. Receives an everlasting blessing. There's immortality to spiritual
life and Everybody that lays hold of the immortality of spiritual
life receive an everlasting blessing All God's people are saved permanently
They're saved for all eternity All right now then if you're
a child of God here today, you cannot lose your salvation I
said you might go to heaven nervous But you will get there by the
grace of God if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus. But you could
be much happier if you just believe what the Bible says. Now, why
do some doubt? Well, number one, because they
do not remember the day and the hour when they trusted Christ. Now, I believe that God saved
me when I was 16, but I didn't have a watch. And as far as I
know, there wasn't even a calendar in the house. where I live. I don't know anything about the
day when I was saved. I don't know. You know they used
to sing an old song and it's a little old chorus and they
would sing it in the congregation and it says on Monday the Lord
touched me, on Tuesday the Lord touched me, and on Monday everybody
was saved. On Monday you're supposed to stand up. And whenever they
say, on Tuesday the Lord touched me, everybody's supposed to stand
up. Everybody got saved on Tuesday. And then he said, on Wednesday
the Lord touched me, everybody's supposed to stand up, got saved
on Wednesday. And I just sat there. And they'd say, well everybody
got, the Lord touched on Thursday, stand up. Everybody the Lord
touched on Friday, stand up. Saturday and Sunday, that's all
the days there is. I know God saved me one of them
days because there isn't any other days. But, I didn't know
what day to stand up on at all, but yet I knew the Lord saved
me. And some people say, well, I
can't remember just when the Lord saved me. Well, beloved,
I can't remember it either. But listen, let me explain it
to you like this. If you had a million dollars
in the bank, You had a million dollars in the bank, what difference
would it make if you happen to forget what day you put it in
there, what hour you put it in there, wouldn't the thing that
really mattered, I mean when you got right down to brass tacks,
wouldn't the thing that really mattered is that it was in there.
It was in there. A million dollars was in the
bank. Well, that's what would really matter. Now, whenever
you write a check, they don't ask you. Now, they might if there
was some problem, but no under normal circumstances when you
write a check. The Lord bless you, Gracie. Be
careful. Well, they don't ask you, well
what day did you make the deposit? Or what hour did you make the
deposit? What minute did you make the deposit here in the
bank? They generally don't ask you
that at all. And beloved, listen, it's just, are you trusting Christ
now? Do you have that money in the
bank now? Are you trusting Christ right now? That's what is important.
Right today. Right now. You say, I don't remember
when all this took place. Are you trusting Him now? Are
you believing right now? That's what the Word of God teaches.
That you're saved on the basis of faith that you have right
now. It's got nothing to do with what
you did when you was a little boy or what you did when you
was a little girl. It has nothing to do with any
other time except right now! Do you believe now, today, that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And are you trusting Him? And
is all the weight of your soul on Him today? That's what really
matters. Now the second thing is this.
Some people doubt their salvation because they did not have the
same experience that somebody else had when they got saved.
Now when I was younger in the faith, About years ago, even
before I started to preach much, I used to go to meetings and
they almost always have a testimony meeting, especially on Sunday
night, where people would get up and tell their experience.
Tell what the Lord had done for them. Tell about what had happened
to them and about all the things that surrounded their conversion. And sometimes they would have
a rather long story to tell and some of the stories when they
got them told you wondered whether it was true or not and some of
them you said to yourself if a man's got to experience that
in order to be saved then I'm not saved. I'm not a child of
God. If that's what it means to be saved then I'm not a Christian.
I couldn't be a Christian because I've not had that experience.
You know how that they were down in the cornfield and they were
four or five rows over in the cornfield and they were down
praying and there was two blue jays sitting on a corn stalk
and all just on and on and on about all the things that just
seemingly happened that had to do with their salvation. There
ain't anything to that. It's not necessary, thank God,
for us to have all the experiences that other people had. I remember
hearing a fellow tell one time about an old lady down in Tennessee,
I believe I was in Belleville, Belleville Indiana at a tent
meeting and this fellow was telling about a woman and she come for
salvation and She had a dip of snuff in her mouth. She come
down the aisle and the preacher said well You want to be saved
and she said well, yes. Yes, sir. She said I want to
be saved so They said, well, the best thing to do is get down
and pray. They used to get down, you know, and they'd pray. The
preacher prayed, and he prayed. After a while, the old lady,
she got cramps in her legs, and she couldn't stay down any longer,
so she got up and went and sat on the front row of the building. And that preacher, he prayed
a little bit longer, and he got up and come over to her and said,
now, have you prayed? She said, yeah, yeah. She said,
I sure enough prayed. He said, well, do you believe
you're saved? And she said, well, I suppose
I am. And he said, well, what did the
Lord say to you when you prayed and you asked him to save you?
And she said, well, he looked down and said, okie dokie, okie
dokie. And so the Lord never said okie-dokie
to me, but my mother used to say that all the time, okie-dokie
she'd say. But the Lord never said okie-dokie
to me, but he said a lot of other things to me that I'm not here
to tell you about today. But listen, it's not necessary
that the Lord look over the banister of heaven and the Hebrew tongue
say okie-dokie to you. in order for you to be saved.
And whenever you hear all these people talking about all their
experiences, remember this, it's the written word of God that's
important. And I'll go back to the Bible,
I'll see what God says, and whenever God says this is the way it is,
then I'm going to believe that. He said, if you believe on the
Son, you have everlasting life. And He said that if you have
the Son in your heart, abiding by faith, you have everlasting and eternal life.
Now some people also doubt because they trust their feelings and
feelings are changing. When a man feels good many times
he thinks well boy I'm sure enough saved. I'm sure enough saved
I feel good. I just feel real good I'm sure
enough saved and we don't feel good Well, he suspects maybe
that there's something wrong, that maybe he's lost because
he don't feel good. Now we make a mistake if we ask
somebody right after they make a profession of faith, how do
you feel? How do you feel? Because that implies that you've
got to feel a certain way to be safe. And this is a mistake. Now there's no question that
feelings come when an individual is saved when they know the Lord.
Not everybody feels the same when God saves them. I've heard
people say, oh I bless God, I believe God saved me and I feel like
That the Lord kicked a bucket of honey over in my soul and
just oozed it out of my ribs. Oh God did a mighty and wonderful
thing in my soul. He just done such a great work.
And then some people say that they feel like they took a shower
on the inside when God saved them. Now there's other people
that say that they feel like they love everybody. Just feel
like they just love everybody. Well, that's all right too. That's
fine. And feel like you took a shower on the inside. That's
fine. And if you say that you feel like the Lord kicked a honey
bucket over your soul, that's all right too. That's all right.
But don't tell anybody else. Everybody else, they got to believe
the same thing. Because that's not the way that it is. Let me
make this point. That feelings are regulated more
by our behavior and our obedience to the Lord than they are by
the incoming of spiritual life. Now listen to what the Lord Jesus
said in John 13, 17. He said that if you know these
things, happy are ye if you do them. If you know these things,
if you know my will, if you know what I want you to do, happy
are you if you do it. If you do it. Now you remember
that old song, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be
happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Feelings are regulated
more by our behavior and by our obedience to God than anything
else. Someone asked William Booth,
The secret to his great joy, and he said this, he said the
secret to it is that I never say no to God. I never say no
to what God told me to do. And I believe that's where these
feelings come from, you know. There's some people that never
feel good. They never feel good. I heard about one lady who said,
I don't even feel good when I feel good. Because I know that before
long I'm going to feel bad again. And so I don't feel good even
when I feel good. And of course I wouldn't want
to live by her in heaven. I wouldn't even want to live
by her on earth really. Because people that never feel good,
people that never have any good solid spiritual joy, you just
have a hard time being around them, don't you? Well, I want
you to write this down if you have a pen and you've got something
to write on. If you don't, maybe you can remember
it. But you ought to write this down so you can remember it.
Say, I feel good, but I don't know I'm saved because I feel
good. I feel good, but I don't know that I'm saved because I
feel good. I know I am saved because the
Bible says so and I feel good because I know I'm saved. Now do you get that? You can't
write that down that quick. Alright well let me just read
it one more time maybe you can get it. I feel good but I don't
know I'm saved because I feel good. I know I am saved because
the Bible says so and I feel good because I know what I'm
saying. Now I think that's clear enough. Listen to these words of the
poet. Feelings, he said, for feelings come and feelings go
and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
naught else is worth believing. I will trust in God's unchanging
word till soul and body sever. But though all earth shall pass
away, His word abides forever. So be my feelings what they will. Jesus is my Savior still. Isn't that wonderful? That's
a wonderful poem. Well, I want you to notice a
couple things here. How do we know we're saved? We've
been talking about the Word of God. And we've been talking about
believing the Word of God, and I warn't being the Word of God,
not else is worth believing. Well, look in John chapter 3
and verse 36. john chapter three over in the
new testament we're going to be done here just uh... just
a minute or two here john three and thirty six i want you to
look at this birth he that believe upon the sun now i want you all
together to read those next three words he that believe upon the
sun you suppose that's true or not
he that believeth on the sun everlasting life. If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have it. And he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Now, beloved, if God means what
He says, then you have eternal life, you have everlasting life,
if you believe on His Son. Now that's simple, isn't it?
Okay, now look at John 6 and verse 47. John 6 and verse 47. And I want you to see what this
means, or see what this says here. John 6 and 47, Jesus said,
truly, truly, I say unto you. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believeth, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. Now I know that believing
is not the act of the will of the natural man. I know that
faith is a gift of God. But I know that if a man can
believe in his heart on the Son of God that he hath everlasting
life. Jesus said so. He said, Truly, truly, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me hath. Everlasting life if
you believe only then you have Everlasting life, okay, I want
you to turn now to first John chapter 3 first John chapter
3 and look at verse 23 Look at verse 23, and I want you to listen
to what this says. This is your warrant from God
for believing Listen to what it says, and this is his commandment
This is His commandment, John said. This is what He commands,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave His commandment. Now listen to
me. It is God's business to put potency
into the cure that He has provided. Did you get that? It is God's
business to put potency into the cure which he has provided. When God says, I command you
to believe on my son, I command you to do it, then it's God's
business through omnipotence. to put power in His Word and
to save you by believing on His Son. That's God's business. He
said this is the cure. This is the cure that you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God will put potency in
that and save you as you believe. Now then, I believe that God regenerates
the soul And that when he does so, that we're enabled to believe.
And that regeneration by the Spirit is a work of God in the
soul, enabling a man to believe the gospel. But nobody gets interested
in believing on Christ, except those in whom the Spirit of God
puts that thirst and desire for Him. And if you're here today,
listen, if you're here today, I want you to think a little
bit with me. You know, we sang that song this
morning. How firm a foundation, you saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
What more can He say than to you He has said? To you, who
for refuge to Jesus has fled. What more can He say? Now, you
know, if Gabriel was to come down here, this morning and he'd
come by and you know Gabriel's one of the archangels and all angels are male, there
isn't any female angels. So if there's any angels around
your house you know who they are. But anyway, so much for
that, but anyway if old Gabriel came down And a fellow said another
thing the Bible says about women is the fact that nowhere in the
Bible does it say a woman died and went to heaven. He said you
can't find it in the Bible where that a woman died and went to
heaven. He said Abraham died and was buried and went to be
with his fathers and that the rich man died and went to hell
and Lazarus died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's
bosom and Enoch was caught up and went to heaven without even
seeing death, but nowhere in the Bible does it say Abraham
died, but it says Sarah died, but it didn't say anything about
where she went. Well, I believe that women that
believe go to heaven when they die. I believe that, but the
Bible doesn't say anything about it. The Bible doesn't say that.
But I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. I guess, like
the old boy says, I guess what it means is that the women better
behave themselves, really better take note of their situation.
Well, they're as much saved as we are by believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, where was I? Well, Gabriel
was coming by. Gabriel was coming by. And Gabriel,
he comes and he says, I've just come to tell you that you're
a child of God and that you're for sure saved. and that you're
going to heaven when you die. Well, you know, we could say,
Gabriel, you didn't need to come all this way. You've come a long
way. Gabriel says, I've come a long way to tell you that.
Well, that'd be wonderful, Gabriel. That'd be wonderful. But my Lord
said, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. My
Lord said, the Bible is written that you who believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And Gabriel, I appreciate you
coming and all that, but you didn't have to come because what
more could anybody tell us than what the Lord's already told
us? What more could anybody? Even if the angel comes by, if
God already said it, then that's what counts. That's what counts.
And so believe what the Word of God says. And that alone is
the basis, and that alone and nothing else is the basis for
assurance of salvation, that alone. Father, in the name of
the Lord Jesus, we thank you for this privilege we've had
this morning to preach. And I do ask that you might make
this message a blessing to those that have heard it. May Christ
be exalted here, and may some poor soul today say in their
hearts, By the grace of God, by the grace of God, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, I believe the record that God gave of His
Son. And I believe this record is
eternal life. And I believe that He that hath
the Son hath life. And I believe that everything
that is written in the Bible is to the end that I could know
that I have eternal life presently right now. And Father, I just
pray that the victory will be given today, that Christ will
be glorified and honored, that all of us may rejoice more fully,
more fully and completely in Him. In His name we pray, Amen.